Hatched chicks vs. Chicks from the feed store?

Thank you all so much! I'm very grateful for the help & wisdom. We are still deciding what to do with Fiona's broody self, but I will keep you posted!

I've had hens set in the nest boxes successfully. Just be prepared to lose an egg here or there from the extra action that occurs from the other hens. I marked the eggs that I wanted the broody to hatch, and checked a couple times a day to remove new eggs that were deposited throughout the day. Also make sure she returns to the correct nest after she goes out to eat.
It got a bit confusing for us when we had two hens and two muscovy ducks who all wanted to sit at the same time. One hen hijacked a duck nest as they were hatching, and ended up raising the ducklings ... After sitting for only one week! She got off pretty easy as far as the sacrifices of motherhood go. Mama duck ended up giving up on the idea, and went back to stay with her boyfriend.
Since I have a mixed flock of chickens, muscovy ducks, "quacky" ducks, and geese, I don't trust new babies to be out in the open until they are old enough to fly a bit, or run really fast in the case of ducklings. Haven't lost any, but my broodies are ferocious defenders.
It's been fun!

White rock with her "chicks" that she commandeered.



And some confusion in the nest box.

Okay, so this may be a really dumb question, but I can't help myself. She's my first broody hen.

I'm going to go get two eggs with embryos for Fiona to sit on. I'm thinking that only sitting for 7 days will be a lot easier on her than 21. Does that sound right?

During the week she's sitting, will she take breaks from the nest to eat and drink? She must, right? But I'm at work all day, so I only see that she has only taken breaks when I've brought her out into the yard twice a day.

thewatsonfarm said:

Okay, so this may be a really dumb question, but I can't help myself. She's my first broody hen.

I'm going to go get two eggs with embryos for Fiona to sit on. I'm thinking that only sitting for 7 days will be a lot easier on her than 21. Does that sound right?

During the week she's sitting, will she take breaks from the nest to eat and drink? She must, right? But I'm at work all day, so I only see that she has only taken breaks when I've brought her out into the yard twice a day.

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I'm a little confused here. You mean that you intend to put semi-incubated eggs under her? If this is the case, i am not sure about the logic of that and it could (guessing a bit, i admit) cause a bit of confusion for the hen. Normally a broody hen will leave the nest most days for 20 mins to an hour to feed, drink, poop and take a quick dust bath so you need not worry about her. Don't take her off the nest - let her decide when she wants to leave the eggs (she may not leave the nest for 2-3 days).

If you can, it may be better to put more than 2 eggs under her - 5 would be ok, since some may not hatch and you don't really want the mother to be going through all the effort for just one chick (plus it will be tough on one chick).

CT

A half dozen is a good number of eggs to have incubate. 80% will hatch and 50% of those be female. So with setting six eggs you have high probability of only getting two pullets.

Hens have been doing this for thousands of years with no help from humans. On rare occasions you get one that doesn’t quite get it, but as a poultry science professor and specialist in chicken reproduction who advises the professional chicken hatchers said, to paraphrase, “With all our science, broody hens still do better than we do”. I find the more I interfere the more likely I am to do harm. They are living animals and anything can possibly happen but in the vast majority of cases you are better off letting her take care of things.

Before a hen even starts to lay eggs, let alone go broody, she builds up a fat reserve. This excess fat is mostly what a broody hen lives off of while on the nest. She still needs to get up to eat, drink, and poop but not all that much. A broody hen will lose weight while broody but that is just fat put there for that very purpose. Since a broody hen is not using most of the nutrition she eats to make eggs (broody hens do not lay eggs) and is not exercising that much she doesn’t need as much energy or nutrients as normal anyway. Nature took care of things so a broody hen doesn’t have to eat that much. She can concentrate on hatching the eggs.

In cold weather I’ve seen a hen leave her nest once a day for maybe 15 minutes to take her daily constitutional. In hot weather I’ve seen a broody hen leave her nest twice a day for over an hour each time. I’ve had broody hens I never did see off the nest, but they were coming off since they were not pooping in the nest. All produced good hatches.

I know it’s stressful and you want to do the best for your hen. What’s best is to let the expert take care of it.

I don’t know where you plan to get eggs that have incubated for two weeks. I’d have no idea where to even look. I can’t think of any advantage for the hen in doing that. She’s set up for the long haul.

Chickens can’t count. Some seem to do better at bonding with their chicks if they have been broody longer. We put already hatched day old chicks under broody hens all the time. Most of the time the broody hens and the chicks bond with each other but occasionally you have a failure. Some people have successfully done that with a broody hen that has only been broody a few days but the success rate seems to be better if they have been broody longer.

If the eggs hatch under a broody hen the odds that she will accept them are tremendously high no matter how long she has been broody. The actual hatch takes a few days and there is a bonding process they go through starting while the chick is still inside the egg. I’ve had a broody hen that just went broody take over another broody hen’s nest by force when those eggs started internal pip. She hatched those eggs and raise the chicks and she had only been broody a very few days. If you can find partially incubated eggs for her it will probably work out but I really don’t see a big advantage.

When you put eggs under a broody hen you have no idea how many will actually hatch. It could be all, none, or somewhere in between. You have no idea how many males or females you will get. On rare occasions I get a 50-50 split but normally 2/3 or even ¾ are one sex. It can be either sex. One incubator hatch last year was 14 pullets and 7 cockerels. It’s a bit too early to tell this year but it looks like one broody hatch is 7 cockerels and 2 pullets.

When you set eggs you need a plan for handling all the chicks if all hatch and you need a plan for the ones that will be cockerels. Normally most eggs do hatch. I can’t tell you how many eggs to put under her. That’s got to depend on your goals and what you plan to do with the chicks. Some people just set one or two eggs and are quite happy. Some incubators will only hold three eggs. With my goals I do a lot more than that. How many you set is a personal decision.

Thank you so much! I didn't know about hens building up a layer of fat, but that makes sense. I'm glad to know she is taking breaks, even though I'm not there to see it. I've been concerned. Of course, I should know that Mother Nature has already worked all of these details out!

I was very interested to learn about the "embryo" eggs (from an incubator) on my feed store's website. I'd never imagined such a thing, but I think know it's kind of a cool option.

Honestly,my last hesitation is what hatches. If we get a rooster, I just don't know what we would do with him. We have a large yard, but we are in a suburban neighborhood. We can't have a rooster. The neighbors are very nice, and we want to keep it that way. The hens are noisy enough. So I'm still stewing about what to do....

thewatsonfarm said:

Thank you so much! I didn't know about hens building up a layer of fat, but that makes sense. I'm glad to know she is taking breaks, even though I'm not there to see it. I've been concerned. Of course, I should know that Mother Nature has already worked all of these details out!

I was very interested to learn about the "embryo" eggs (from an incubator) on my feed store's website. I'd never imagined such a thing, but I think know it's kind of a cool option.

Honestly,my last hesitation is what hatches. If we get a rooster, I just don't know what we would do with him. We have a large yard, but we are in a suburban neighborhood. We can't have a rooster. The neighbors are very nice, and we want to keep it that way. The hens are noisy enough. So I'm still stewing about what to do....

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Best thing to do with an unwanted cockerel is to stew him.

Never heard of 'embryo' eggs....where are you located?

If your not prepared to butcher the unwanted cockerels at 12 weeks of age before they start crowing then you should definitely get sexed or even sex linked chicks from the store. I don't know the availability of less than week old chicks in your area. They're none existent this time of year here.